BC Tenancy Act Changes - What Landlords Need To Know!

Landlords will be feeling the changes made by the NDP to the BC Tenancy Act in October 2017. These changes are significant and are meant to protect renters from major rent hikes. The new policy does help in this regard but has negative impacts as well. The rental rates in Victoria have seen major increases with skyrocketing property prices in the Greater Victoria Real Estate Market.

The NDP has outlawed the use of Vacate Clauses in Fixed Term Leases for Residential Tenancies. In the past, if you had a new tenancy, you could put them on a fixed term lease with a vacate clause. At the end of the lease the tenant would be required to vacate the premises unless a new agreement was agreed to by both parties. Use of the Fixed Term Lease allowed Landlords the ability to remove problem tenants. Unfortunately, many landlords were using this type of lease to impose hefty increases to rents at the end of terms or the tenant would have to leave and find new accommodation. The new rule helps with the latter issue by preventing a landlord from demanding a tenant vacate or agree to significant increases. The new rule mandates that at the end of a lease the tenant must go to month to month if another term of lease is not negotiated. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule but generally, it will affect virtually all tenancies.

Rental protection groups are applauding the change. Renters can have better peace of mind that they will be able to remain in their home at the end of any tenancy lease agreement. However, the problem I see coming, is the landlord will be handcuffed to problem tenants. The BC Tenancy Act provides a lot of protection to renters and many renters have proven to be able to “game the system” making it very difficult to evict problem tenants.

For more information and further discussion feel free to reach out to the Bosdet Homes Team.

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